Syria has freed 265 detainees "involved" in the popular uprising against President Bashar Assad, "but who do not have blood on their hands," the state news agency SANA reported on Saturday.

Releasing detainees is a requisite of the six-point peace plan brokered by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan last month, as is the ceasefire agreement that came into effect on April 12 but has suffered violations ever since.

The self-confessed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and four co-accused appeared in a Guantanamo Bay court Saturday to be arraigned, all facing the death penalty if convicted.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-defendants -- being seen in public for the first time in three years -- were to be formally charged with planning and executing the September 11, 2001, attacks that killed 2,976 people in New York, Washington and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

A lawyer for Moammar Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam has called on the International Criminal Court to disqualify chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Campo from the case, alleging possible bias, the ICC said Saturday.

The submission made Thursday was published on the website of the ICC, which is in a tussle with the new Libyan authorities holding Seif al-Islam over the right to try him.

A brother and sister were believed to have carried out suicide bombings in Russia's Dagestan that killed at least 13 people and injured more than a hundred, the regional president said Saturday.

"The names of the suicide bombers have been preliminarily established. They are the brother and sister Rizvan and Muslimat Aliyev," Magomedsalam Magomedov told the parliament, according to ITAR-TASS news agency.

Vladimir Putin supporters unveiled plans on Saturday to draw more than 50,000 people onto the streets of Moscow in a show of force ahead of the strongman's inauguration to a third presidential term.

Russia's current prime minister will take back the Kremlin seat he already held from 2000-2008 during a swearing-in ceremony on Monday that follows his thumping March 4 election win against only token opposition.

France held its breath Saturday on the eve of a presidential election that Socialist Francois Hollande was predicted to win despite incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy closing the gap after wooing the far-right.

Political speeches and new opinion polls have been banned since a particularly ferocious campaign ended on Friday night, but the last poll published ahead of the deadline forecast a 52-48 percent win for Hollande.

Not only Greece but also Europe braced Saturday for an election that polls indicate will decimate the two main parties and fail to produce a clear winner, sparking market fears about fresh Eurozone turmoil.

In comments widely quoted by Greek newspapers on the eve of Sunday's vote, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said that if Greece's new government deviated from its commitments the country would have to "bear the consequences."

An Israeli military observation balloon has crashed accidentally in Israel near the Gaza Strip, an army spokeswoman said on Saturday.

"An observation balloon of the army crashed Friday in Israel near the security fence" between the Jewish state and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, she told Agence France Presse.

Regime troops used tear gas on Saturday to try to disperse a mass funeral attended by thousands of people who took to the streets of the Syrian capital to mourn slain protesters, a rights group said.

"Syrian regime forces used tear gas to disperse people attending the funerals of the Kfar Sousa martyrs and calling for the fall of the regime," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Deputy Head of Hizbullah's Executive Council Sheikh Nabil Qaouq slammed on Saturday U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman for interfering in the elections, considering it as a “violation of sovereignty and dignity.”

“His discussions that focused on the elections confirm that he is the actual leader of the March 14 forces in Lebanon,” Qaouq said.